Free Halloween and spooky stories for kids
Peabody has 16 free spooky stories for kids to read online, from a level 2 mystery in the fog to retold classics like Hansel and Gretel and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Each is marked spooky so a grown-up can choose first, and each opens at once with no sign-up. Free through the end of 2026.
| Story | Level | Pages | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Tapping in the Fog | Level 2 | 21 | A strange tapping stops every time Juno stops, and it is coming from the old boathouse in the fog. |
| The Time Machine | Level 4 | 13 | An inventor rides a time machine into a future full of laughing, helpless people who lock their doors at night. |
| Hansel and Gretel | Level 4 | 18 | In a hungry year, Hansel and Gretel get lost in the great forest and find a little house made of bread and cake. |
| The Wizard of Oz | Level 5 | 13 | A cyclone drops Dorothy and her dog into a land of munchkins, talking scarecrows and one very bad-tempered witch. |
| Fort Lantern | Level 6 | 14 | At 4:12 on Saturday, a fuzzy green monster in a bathrobe announces that Lantern Court now belongs to the monsters of the storm drain. |
| The Well That Breathed | Level 7 | 17 | Something is breathing at night in the old well at Gran's farm, and every afternoon it runs dry. |
| Perseus and Medusa | Level 8 | 18 | A fisherman's foster son promises a wicked king the head of Medusa, whose stare turns people to stone. |
| Vasilisa the Brave | Level 9 | 13 | Sent into the dark forest to fetch fire from Baba Yaga, the witch whose hut walks on chicken legs, Vasilisa has nothing but her mother's tiny doll in her pocket. |
| Theseus and the Minotaur | Level 9 | 14 | A young prince sails to Crete to end a terrible tribute, armed with a princess's thread and a maze full of echoes. |
| A Christmas Carol | Level 9 | 14 | On Christmas Eve, the stingiest man in London is visited by the ghost of his old partner, rattling in chains, and then by three spirits. |
| The Stuck Note | Level 9 | 14 | Every afternoon, middle C on the old school piano sticks, and the little kids swear it is the ghost of a choirmaster named R.T. |
| The Legend of Sleepy Hollow | Level 9 | 15 | Ichabod Crane, a skinny schoolteacher who believes every ghost story, sets his heart on marrying Katrina Van Tassel, while Brom Bones plays pranks on him. |
| Odysseus and the Cyclops | Level 10 | 12 | Odysseus and his crew are locked in a giant's cave behind a boulder no army could move, and the giant's idea of dinner is them. |
| The Hound of the Baskervilles | Level 11 | 13 | An old curse says a giant hound haunts the Baskerville family across the foggy moors of Devon, and now Sir Charles Baskerville has been found dead beside the footprints of an enormous dog. |
| Beowulf and Grendel | Level 11 | 13 | For twelve years a monster has been stealing the sleepers from the great hall of Heorot, and nobody dares even to hum. |
| Frankenstein | Level 12 | 13 | A young scientist named Victor Frankenstein discovers how to give life to lifeless matter, builds a giant, and runs from the creature the moment it opens its eyes. |
What spooky means here
Every Peabody story is marked gentle, spooky, scary or horror before anyone reads it. A spooky story may have a witch, a ghost, a monster or a tense night, and it is told short and plain for young readers. Stories marked scary or horror are not in the open library at all, so none are on this page, and none can be read without an account. The 16 here run from levels 2 to 12.
Where to start
Read the first page yourself if you are not sure. These six are a good way in, easiest first:
- The Tapping in the Fog (level 2): A strange tapping stops every time Juno stops, and it is coming from the old boathouse in the fog.
- Hansel and Gretel (level 4): In a hungry year, Hansel and Gretel get lost in the great forest and find a little house made of bread and cake.
- The Wizard of Oz (level 5): A cyclone drops Dorothy and her dog into a land of munchkins, talking scarecrows and one very bad-tempered witch.
- Fort Lantern (level 6): At 4:12 on Saturday, a fuzzy green monster in a bathrobe announces that Lantern Court now belongs to the monsters of the storm drain.
- The Stuck Note (level 9): Every afternoon, middle C on the old school piano sticks, and the little kids swear it is the ghost of a choirmaster named R.T.
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (level 9): Ichabod Crane, a skinny schoolteacher who believes every ghost story, sets his heart on marrying Katrina Van Tassel.
Games and colouring after a spooky story
No Peabody game is themed for Halloween yet, so there is no spooky game to link to here. After a story, a child can try a learning game for the grade they are in, or read another story in the library.
A level is not a scare rating
The level number says how hard the reading is: how long the sentences are and how common the words are, from level 1 for a first reader up to level 13. It says nothing about how frightening a story is. A level 9 story is a harder read, not a scarier one, and a level 4 story can have a witch in it. Each story's page shows its level and its spooky mark; the level pages explain what each level reads like.
More free stories
- The whole library: free stories by reading level, no account needed.
- Classic stories retold short: fables, fairy tales, myths and legends.
- Free Aesop's fables for kids, with the lesson of each
- Free classic fairy tales for kids
- Free Greek myths for kids
- Free folk tales, tall tales and legends for kids
- By level: Level 2 · Level 4 · Level 5 · Level 6 · Level 7 · Level 8 · Level 9 · Level 10 · Level 11 · Level 12
Questions parents ask
Are these stories too scary for young children?
That depends on the child, so read a story's short description first and the opening page yourself. A story marked spooky can have a witch, a ghost, a monster or a tense night, told short and plain. The easiest to start with is The Tapping in the Fog (level 2). Stories marked scary or horror are not open to visitors at all.
Do I need an account, or to pay?
No. Every story on this page is free to read through the end of 2026, with no account and no card.
What do the level numbers mean?
A level is how hard the reading is, from level 1 for a first reader to level 13, worked out from the text itself. It is not a rating for how scary a story is. The level pages show the limits for each one.
Checked against how Peabody works on 19 October 2026. Written with help from AI, from Peabody's own code and library. Peabody is a learning app, not an assessment: if you're worried about your child's learning, talk to their teacher.